REVIEWS
News Roundup |
Contests & Awards
|
Industry News
|
People in the News
|
Press Releases
Reviews | Special Reports
Reviews | Special Reports
Reviews
In St. Louis: Awakenings Touches the Soul

Before Awakenings was a new opera by Tobias Picker, premiering at Opera Theater of St. Louis last week, it was a ballet, with a score also by Picker (completely different from the opera), as well as a 1990 film starring Robert DeNiro, and the … »
Read
Reviews
AMOC Runs Amuck at Ojai: Two Views

For 75 years, the Ojai Music Festival, located in the Ojai Valley north of Los Angeles, has presented a three-day weekend packed full of performances curated by a music director chosen for a one-year term. More often than not, an individual has … »
Read
Reviews
Janácek’s Mr. Broucek: An Ugly Duckling Becomes a Witty Swan

LONDON--With its quaint local color and swirling cinematic dramaturgy, The Adventures of Mr. Broucek is the trickiest of Janácek’s operas to pull off. Get it wrong and it comes across as a rambling bit of folkish whimsy, or worse, an … »
Read
Reviews
In SF: Sellars and Salonen Stage Strange Stravinsky Doubleheader

“Citizens: Listen! Look!” With that arresting command, declaimed from the stage of Davies Symphony Hall by actress Breezy Leigh, a June 11 San Francisco Symphony program devoted to Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex and Symphony of Psalms … »
Read
Reviews
Overblown Staging Obscures La Scala's La Gioconda

MILAN--While Amilcare Ponchielli’s La Gioconda was an instant hit when it premiered at La Scala in 1876, the opera is rarely performed today. Casting its six big leading roles is no easy task, and barely credible elements of the story, not … »
Read
Reviews
Orfeo at Garsington: Transcendent

LONDON--Garsington Opera launched its six-week summer season with two key repertory operas in productions touched with greatness. The restaging of John Cox’s 2004 Cos ì fan tutte , a modern classic first seen in San Francisco as well … »
Read
Reviews
Pappano Unearths Italian Rarities with the LSO

LONDON--Anyone wondering how Sir Antonio Pappano’s tenure as chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra—beginning September 2024—might differ from that of current incumbent Sir Simon Rattle should consider this dazzling … »
Read
Reviews
Trifonov Tackles Bates's New Concerto in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO--In his new Piano Concerto, Mason Bates doesn’t employ any of the electronica or DJ stylings that earmark a number of the composer’s other works. But when the piece received its first West Coast performances June 2-5, it … »
Read
Reviews
Hwood Bowl Centennial Season Opens
in a Varied, Vibrant, Blowout

HOLLYWOOD – Once upon a time, the programs at Hollywood Bowl were called “Symphonies Under the Stars.” These days, symphonies are still performed under the stars at the 100-year-old, 17,500-seat amphitheater, but they no … »
Read
Reviews
Siegfried: Festival Opera Among the Cotswolds

LONDON -- Nestling in the heart of the Cotswolds, Longborough Festival Opera was the brainchild of Martin and Lizzie Graham. In 1996, they reconstructed a barn on their Moreton-in-Marsh property to create an intimate 500-seat theater. The … »
Read

WHO'S BLOGGING

Law and Disorder by GG Arts Law
Career Advice by Legendary Manager Edna Landau
An American in Paris by Frank Cadenhead
